Tuesday, March 15, 2011

03/15/2011
For his release of the partial Senate blue ribbon committee report finding Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez guilty of non-feasance and betrayal of public trust over the plea bargain agreement the prosecutors forged with the former military comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, its chairman Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona and those who signed without any reservations are getting a lot of flack, mainly for misleading the public by making it appear that the partial report had been approved by the majority in the blue ribbon committee, when the opposite was true, along with the public perception that not only are they lackeys of Noynoy Aquino, but that they have prejudged the impeachment case of the Ombudsman, who is fast earning public sympathy due to the obvious denial of due process and her demonization by the Noynoy allies.

Several senators have pointed out that it was unwise of Guingona to have included the Ombudsman in the plea bargain agreement in the committee report on account of the impeachment that will reach trial stage at the Senate..... MORE

03/15/2011
Some two weeks ago, Justice Chief Leila de Lima titillated the media with her claim that she and her agencies have had a “breakthrough” in the Vizconde massacre case probe she is currently conducting, but gave no details.

Shortly after, it was announced that she had asked Hubert Webb to provide her probe team with his original stamped passport, adding that which was presented to the court was merely a photocopy.

She added that this would prove whether indeed Webb was in the US as he said he was, when the murder had occurred.

Asked whether this was the “breakthrough” she was talking about earlier, De Lima refused to say, although it has been noted that she is no longer talking about “breakthroughs” in the case..... MORE

03/15/2011
BEIJING — For years, Wang Yulan and her husband drove their three-wheeled vehicle to an outdoor market near Beijing to sell broccoli, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes grown on their small plot of land.

Now, thanks to the web, they don’t even have to leave their living room.

Two years ago the couple bought a computer and joined a growing number of Chinese farmers selling their produce online, giving them access to customers around the country and boosting their meager income.

“A broad market is opened once you get on the computer,” Wang, 55, told AFP as she logged on to agricultural trading Web site aptc.cn with the help of her niece..... MORE

03/15/2011
Tragedy brings out the worst and the best in people. Our not-so distant memories of Typhoon “Ondoy” support the statement to be fact.

How truly awful now in the aftermath of the twin quakes that hit Japan, to have despicable opportunists set to make money out of the misery of others; termite-like publicity-seekers out of the woodwork believing that good or bad, publicity is still publicity; and idiots-and-a-half pushing to have their share of the limelight.

In the US, CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow on the business segment of his show was perhaps trying to be witty, when he compared the global stock market doing better than Japan: “The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.” Viewers were outraged, and he apologized, explaining he was really only “talking about markets, I flubbed the line. Sincere apology.”

A supposedly popular American rap star — I’d never heard of the guy, 50 Cent, I mean, how can that be the name of a person — made offensive tweets about the earthquake and the tsunami and is being lambasted for it. He dismissed the tsunami threat to the US West Coast with “Wave will hit 8 a.m. them crazy white boys try to go surfing.” (sic) And followed it up with “Look this is very serious people I had to evacuate my hoes (the slang word, I am told, for whores) from LA, Hawaii and Japan. I had to do it. Lol” (sic). Reacting to intense criticism, the rapper’s feeble alibi was “Some of my tweets are ignorant I do it for shock value. Hate it or love it. I’m cool either way.”.... MORE

03/15/2011
Sen. Bongbong Marcos’ claim that the Philippines, had his father remained in office, would have become another Singapore has attracted criticism. Some, unfortunately, has not been particularly well-informed.

One commentary (I forget now whether it was an editorial or a column) claimed that before Ferdinand Marcos was elected to the presidency the exchange rate was P2 to the dollar and the foreign debt problem was practically non-existent. Not true. That was the rate before Diosdado Macapagal took over the presidency in January 1962, and his administration immediately devalued the peso to P3.90 to the dollar. At the same time, foreign currency controls were lifted. Why? Because the International Monetary Fund had attached these conditions to its approval of a $300 million loan — the first for the Philippines.

These actions by the Macapagal government, under IMF dictation, had far-reaching consequences..... MORE

03/15/2011
MOSCOW — US-Russia trade has yet to live up to the reset in political ties but US firms believe Russia’s human resources can soon do for high-tech engineering what India did to the IT sector two decades ago.

Vice President Joe Biden this week lamented on a visit to Moscow that annual trade between the two countries was equivalent to just a few days of commerce with neighbors Canada and Mexico.

But executives at some of North America’s biggest companies are grasping onto a vision of a 24-hour production cycle in which Russian engineers zip their drafts to board room executives in Europe and the United States.

The US aerospace and defense behemoth Boeing now has a $27 billion plan in place to purchase Russian parts and R&D services — with much of the focus placed on the latter..... MORE

03/15/2011
On the occasion of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan and left the country ravaged, had people killed and has its economy devastated, it is expected that there are certain individuals who will speak and engage in a good amount of prophecies of doom.

There will be some characters who might even wear curious clothing with proper face looks, and predict the fearful events of the days ahead — infallibly predicting the when and how of the end of the world. And this is certainly not the first time that such public scenarios come to fore. Philippine history is the witness to this periodic curious if forced, the necessity and practicality of the Church in the matter — as squarely premised in the Sacred Scriptures according to the clear and plain teaching of Christ Himself:

One: As the world has a beginning, it also has an end. In other words, the end of the world is a certainly. And therewith go the end of nature and the environment, the final curtain fall for humanity included. The end of the world is a certitude — with or without harmful biotechnology ventures, with or without climate change and other assault at nature..... MORE

The move of Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona recommending that his blue ribbon committee enjoin the House of Representatives to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, already implies that he has prejudged her guilt.

No less than Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile underscored the implication of the decision of Guingona, who until yesterday, remained defiant in the face of the Senate chief’s call for the blue ribbon committee chairman to remove the “impeach call” contained in the partial panel report on its inquiry into the plea bargain agreement that the Ombudsman’s prosecutors sealed with former military comptroller, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Carlos Garcia.

“I do not know how he will be able to explain this position. He does not have to hear the evidence anymore if he has made up his mind,” the Senate chief pointed out.

Enrile, who over the weekend, expressed strong reservations over the panel’s recommendations, called on Guingona to consider removing the issue on impeachment as it could jeopardize the standing of the upper chamber since there is an impeachment complaint anticipated to be transmitted to the Senate, which is mandated by the Constitution to constitute itself as an impeachment court that will hear the case against Gutierrez..... MORE

A ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) has decided that the transfer of the investigation of the complaint against erstwhile presidential candidate Sen. Manny Villar in the controversial C-5 Road Extension Project from the Senate’s ethics committee to the committee of the whole does not violate his right to due process.

In an en banc decision by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the SC voting 13-0 said the referral of the complaint can take effect upon publication of the Rules of the Senate committee of the Whole. The decision partially grants the petition filed by Villar and his allies composed of then Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Senators Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan, Pia Cayetano and Alan Peter Cayetano.

The SC ruled that the referral of the investigation of Villar to the Senate committee of the whole was a valid extraordinary remedy under the circumstances and said the adoption by the Senate committee of the whole of the Rules of the Ethics Committee does not violate Villar’s right to due process..... MORE

Days after the Chinese Navy reportedly harassed a Philippine vessel searching for oil at a disputed territory in the South China Sea, acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed that a legally-binding code of conduct for claimants must be finalized to ensure peace and stability in the region.

Clinton phoned Del Rosario last Sunday to congratulate him on his new appointment and to discuss key bilateral and regional issues, among which is the dispute in the South China Sea territories.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said both foreign secretaries “underscored the need to ensure maritime security in the Asia-Pacific and agreed that a way forward is the conclusion of a binding regional code of conduct in the South China Sea.”

Washington has urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China to forge a stronger
code of conduct and even offered its assistance on the negotiations for the crafting of the new document..... MORE

The pannel led by Assistant State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon yesterday said they could not accept De Lima’s claim that they lacked the expected passion in prosecuting the case as the reason for the Justice secretary’s decision to replace them.

“It’s okay if the secretary replaced us, that is her prerogative. But I can’t help myself and my members from feeling bad when she said we lacked the zeal, enthusiasm, dynamism and aggressiveness because we knew how much effort we put into this case,” he told reporters.

Fadullon admitted that the decision of De Lima came as a surprise since they were neither consulted nor informed about it.... MORE

03/15/2011
The leading proponent of introducing nuclear energy to the country reversed his stand yesterday in the wake of a potential nuclear disaster in quake-hit Japan.

Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco said there was a need to rethink assumptions that nuclear power was safe following two explosions in three days at Japan’s Fukushima plant.

“In the light of Fukushima, I would like to say that now is the opportune time, the right time, for the whole world’s nuclear power industry to be in a period of introspection,” Cojuangco said in a statement. “Meaning, they should examine events like Fukushima and see if all the assumptions of safety of nuclear power are still valid, and if adjustments are to be made, what they should do.”

Last year, while he was a member of parliament, Cojuangco lobbied heavily for the reactivation of a mothballed nuclear energy plant as a means to address the Philippines’ perennial power outages..... MORE

03/15/2011
TOKYO — An explosion rocked a building housing a nuclear reactor at a quake-damaged Japanese power plant yesterday, the second such blast in two days, and the cooling system failed at a third reactor.

The new troubles at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, 250 kilometers north of Tokyo, stalled Japan’s efforts to secure the facility after Friday’s massive earthquake and devastating tsunami.

Officials said the container surrounding the plant’s number-three reactor was not breached in the blast — which left 11 people injured — and there was no major rise in radiation levels.

The nuclear safety agency ruled out the possibility of a Chernobyl-style accident at the plant, according to national strategy minister Koichiro Genba..... MORE

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna — A mother, her son, and househelper were killed in her home in San Pablo City, Laguna, police report said yesterday.

Zanaida Fronda, 74, a widow of a member of the US Navy, her son Julius 51, also a former US Navy, and househelp identified only as Laleng from Pitugo Quezon, were found dead in Fronda’s house in Barangay 2-C, San Pablo City around 5 p.m. last Sunday.

The victims’ bodies bore slits in the necks and wounds in the heads.

City police chief Supt. Leo Luna said Zenaida’s brother-in-law Ceferino Abril, who also live nearby, felt strange that none of the victims went out from their house the whole day last Sunday. Abril sought help from village watchmen to check the whereabouts of Frondas..... MORE

They are members of the Interfaith Council, composed of bishops, pastors, priests, nuns, imams, provincial government leaders and non-government organizations (NGOs), whose aim is to develop better understanding of the two major religions Muslims and Christians and to promote unity and peace among their followers.

Lanao del Norte Vice Gov. Irma Umpa-Ali, a staunch peace advocate in the province, urging the Muslims and Christians to resolve conflicts or differences in a peaceful and diplomatic ways instead of using power or weapons of mass destructions..... MORE